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Does Google Care About Your Rights?

Considering the vast amount of wealth and power the company has gained from compiling your personal data—I don’t think Google prioritizes respecting the freedoms of its customers. Don’t believe me? Please stick around.

Facebook makes billions selling your personal preferences. Apple’s got their fingers in your pocket. And Google is perhaps worst of all. Not only do they see most of our email messages and other data, but they are literally controlling what we can access on the Internet via searches. It’s a scary prospect to consider, that the greatest platform in the history of humanity to preserve freedom—the Internet—is controlled by a gatekeeper called Google.

Worse yet, we voluntarily give them this power.

It’s a known fact that companies like Google can see everything you say and do through their services. It’s just the reality of the technology. Now, considering you’re a lowly, everyday person like me, Google has little reason to abuse this power. But the fact remains, they have an awful lot of access to your personal life.

During an audience Q&A, Snowden [said] that people should "search for encrypted communication services" because they "enforce your rights." He advised the public to be wary of online services that are “hostile to privacy,” specifically Facebook and Google and cloud storage service Dropbox. (Newsweek)

You may never blow the whistle on the NSA, turning the entire U.S. government against you, as Snowden did. But your right to privacy is an important freedom as an American. It means you can say or do what you like, with whomever you like, without the fear that someone—a company or government—is watching you.

Even law-abiding citizens have something to fear, as a corrupt or brutal government can twist innocent things into evil. Would you let a cop sniff around your house for no reason? Who knows what they might find, or claim to find? Do you want the federal government watching your every move, know where and when you go shopping, what movies you watch, or people you talk to? Of course not. But you let Google know.

Our privacy is protected by the 4th Amendment, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

That part about papers and effects? Yeah, that means the stuff you own and use to communicate. That includes, in the modern day, emails, texts, and the Internet. The government can’t rifle through all that (though they try), but considering how buddy-buddy they are with Google, it’s not a big stretch to believe they can get to you if they want to.

But wait, there’s more! Not only does Google get dangerously close to violating your 4th Amendment rights, but they’ve been undermining the First Amendment for a loooong time.

Google, Inc., isn't just the world's biggest purveyor of information; it is also the world's biggest censor.

The company maintains at least nine different blacklists that impact our lives, generally without input or authority from any outside advisory group, industry association or government agency. (US News)

Because of the tremendous power it wields in providing you with search engine results, Google long ago discovered it could control what you see, by blocking results it doesn’t like. This was especially true during the 2016 Presidential Election.

Following allegations that Internet search giant Google is actively censoring search results to benefit Hillary Clinton, a self-described Google insider wrote that company management will not deny the claims to lower-level employees. (Daily Caller)

While people were starting to question Hillary Clinton’s health, they discovered that Google was scrubbing results that addressed it. Now, you might not care, if you’re a Hillary-loving liberal, but be honest: this was a very bad thing.

Regardless of your ideological beliefs, do you really want Google deciding what you can or cannot see on the Internet? This isn’t the 1950’s, when there were only 3 television stations. What you had access to was shockingly limited by a few companies. This is the future! We have access to trillions of pages of content, from billions of bloggers, writers, and commentators. Why should we allow Google to censor any of them?

The issue of censorship has become one of the greatest concerns of our time. In order to preserve freedom of speech, we need to make sure everyone has a right to speak, without hindrance. Yet the powers that be have discovered they can prevent people from hearing from those they don’t like, by blocking their search results. That’s a scary thought.

It seems like Google isn’t satisfied with invading your privacy and limiting your speech though. They also want you to be weak and defenseless.

Google announced plans on Friday to donate $2 million to a violence reduction campaign that includes the nation's leading gun control organizations.

The grant will be given by Google.org, an arm of the search giant that provides money and resources to nonprofit organizations, and go to the PICO LIVE FREE Campaign. That campaign focuses on reducing gun violence, especially in minority communities centered in major cities. The new initiative it's creating with the grant will involve gun control groups like Everytown for Gun Safety, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Americans for Responsible Solutions, Guns Down America, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility. (Free Beacon)

Not my guns! Oh noes!

Some of you might not understand the importance of the Second Amendment. Let me crack an egg of knowledge on you.

The whole point of the United States is to give the people power over the government. For ages, kings, emperors, and tyrants had abused and exploited their people. They denied them basic rights, taxed them into oblivion, and forced them to fight in endless wars. The founders of the U.S. created a government that prevented one man (or a small group of men) from assuming large amounts of power. Thus, you have states and a three-branch federal government.

But they went further than that. They added a list of rights that were reserved to the people. Rights that limited the government’s power over them; so that the people could decide how to live their lives, without the government sticking their noses in.

Those rights include freedom of religion, speech, press and many others. Including the right to own and operate firearms.

A part of that means an American citizen can defend himself from crooks, criminals, and terrorists. Cops can’t be everywhere, and there are many Americans who don’t even trust cops. The only way to ensure your family is safe, sometimes, is to have a means of shooting back.

Even liberal radio jockey Howard Stern knows this.

Radio host Howard Stern blasted politicians’ and activists’ gun control push in the wake of the terrorist attack in Orlando during an episode of his program this week, pointing out that more gun control will only make attacking innocent people an easier task…

“I don’t like violence,” Stern continued. “I don’t like any of this stuff — but I consider myself a sheep. Most of your politicians have private security, so they’re OK. Those are sheep that are very well protected. You, on the other hand, are a sitting duck. I’m not for taking away people’s rights.” (Breitbart)

That’s some based talk right there. And I don’t even like Howard Stern!

The anti-gun groups Google is funding claim to implement “evidence-based gun violence prevention” in order to help the inner city. Yet there is data to prove gun control laws cause more deaths than they stop- because the good people can’t fight back.

According to the Chicago Tribune, “at least 228 people were shot in Chicago so far this year.” That is an increase of 16 victims over the number shot by this same time in 2016. And there have been “at least 42 homicides,” marking a “23.5 percent from the 34 homicides from the same period in 2016.”

Think about it this way–January 2016 was the bloodiest start for a year in at least 16 years, yet the carnage of the first three weeks of 2017 surpassed it. And this is a bad omen, especially when you consider the fact that bloody January 2016 set the tone for the rest of last year, with the result that gun-controlled Chicago ended 2016 with nearly 4,400 shootings and almost 800 murders. (Breitbart)

Gun control laws do nothing to stop criminals from getting and using guns. You know, because they intend to break the law anyway. Do you think a drug dealer or thug who plans on murdering someone is going to stop and say, “Oh, there’s a waiting period? I need to respect that.”

I don’t have to reference the horrific shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando last year, but I will. An Islamic terrorist murdered 50 Americans. There was no one to fight back, because it was a gun free zone.

Does that mean gay guys partying at a club should be packing heat? Of course not, grow up. But shouldn’t there have been at least one manager or bouncer with a piece?

So where is Google’s evidence that gun control actually helps? It only makes victims out of law-abiding citizens.

There is a real reason Google and these groups want to take guns from American citizens, and it has everything to do with tyranny.

You see, the Second Amendment isn’t just about fending off criminals. It’s a last resort to challenge the government. We might one day face a situation where the leaders in D.C. have completely run off the rails; that all the safe guards in our Constitution are destroyed; that they no longer care about our rights, freedoms, or liberties; that the feds will try to arrest us, take our land, and punish us for speaking freely.

If that dire time ever came, we have a way to fight back: our firearms.

The Founding Fathers knew about government oppression first-hand. They had already experienced the irksome and capricious laws conceptualized by King George III and enforced by his aggressive army and navy. They understood at a visceral level why men must join together to overthrow tyranny. The Declaration of Independence states that, “When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” The only way to “throw off” a government that has grown tyrannical is by killing, or credibly threatening to kill, the people who are violating your rights, and by extrapolation threatening your life. (Constitution Preservation)

Sounds dire, I know. And we are far, far from ever worrying about using weapons, so long as we have the courts, free speech, and elections to have our say. But the fact of the matter is freedom is hardly free.

We see around the world how easy it is for governments to take control of their people’s liberty. Terrorists, dictators, and cruel regimes seek to turn free people into slaves; to rob them of their rights, so the limited few in government have all the power. The first thing they often do is take away the people’s guns- because they won’t be able to fight back.

This is why Google and other liberal outlets want to impose gun control. They want a populace that is defenseless, uninformed, and easily manipulated by the government. The last thing they want is a nation of smart, self-empowered, free thinking citizens. We’d be far too difficult to control. So, little by little, they aim to strip away our rights.

This is why, as Americans, we must be aware of these groups’ attempts. If you’re worried about what Google doing, don’t use their services. If you care about freedom of speech, use it. If you believe in the Second Amendment, then educate and arm yourself responsibly.

Otherwise… well, I don’t have to tell you what will happen.

Adam Casalino writes about US politics and the culture wars for TrigTent.